This is quite remarkable. It seems that certain iPhones running different versions of iOS can crash if you enter a specific string of characters in the App Library search field.
I managed to reproduce the bug on my iPhone 13 Pro with iOS 17.6.1. Fortunately, it was harmless. The screen briefly went black with a loading icon for about 2 seconds before returning to the locked Home Screen.
Although the glitch seems harmless, its full impact is still unknown. If you’re feeling adventurous and want to give your iPhone a little thrill, follow these steps.
To check if the bug affects your iPhone, unlock your device and swipe left until you reach your App Library as shown in the image above. Then type “”:: (two quotation marks followed by two colons). Typing “A”:B or A””:: also triggers the bug. It’s unlikely that repeating this action multiple times will cause any harm.
We also tested entering the same character strings – “”:: / “A”:B / A””:: in the search bar of the Settings app. Each time, the Settings app would immediately close after typing the last character. Unlike the App Library scenario mentioned earlier, the Settings app closed without returning to the locked Home Screen.
The reason behind this phenomenon remains a mystery. Our speculation is that Apple will address it in a future iOS update. Fortunately, triggering the bug doesn’t seem to affect the overall performance of the iPhone.
Previously, iPhone users could crash other iPhones with specific character bugs through the Messages app. However, it seems that this time around, you can’t impact another user’s iPhone. This seemingly harmless iPhone hiccup sheds light on the intricacies of the iPhone’s hardware and software.
We find this minor glitch fascinating because the iPhone user experience is typically flawless. Nevertheless, this hiccup does little to diminish our trust in Apple and the iPhone. Most likely, Apple will address this issue in the upcoming update releases.
